The Implementation Steering Committee is delighted to announce the selection of members for NCBE’s Content Scope Committee, which will assist us in developing test content specifications to delineate the scope of coverage of the Foundational Concepts and Principles (FC&P) and the Foundational Skills that will be measured on the next generation of the bar exam.
The 21 Content Scope Committee members are:
- Kareem Aref, Deputy District Attorney, San Bernardino Co., CA
- Alyson Carrel, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, IL
- Kerri Davis, Privacy Manager, Microsoft Corporation, WA
- Michael Flynn, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, CA
- Laura Frase, Assistant Professor of Law, University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, TX
- Hemanth Gundavaram, Clinical Professor, Northeastern University School of Law, MA
- David Hollady, Senior Corporate Counsel, Data Protection Officer, Lever, Inc., CA
- Twinette Johnson, Professor of Law and Director of Academic Success, University of the District of Columbia School of Law, DC
- Robert Jones, Associate Professor of Law, Northern Illinois University College of Law, IL
- Dennis Kim-Prieto, Reference Librarian and Associate Professor, Rutgers Law School, NJ
- Tamara Lawson, Dean, St. Thomas University College of Law, FL
- Jon Lee, Professor of Practice, University of Minnesota Law School, MN
- Gregory Louis, Associate Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law, NY
- Timothy McFarlin, Associate Professor of Law, Samford University Cumberland School of Law, AL
- Deborah Merritt, Distinguished University Professor, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, OH
- Seth Oranburg, Associate Professor of Law, Duquesne University School of Law, PA
- Shellie Park-Hoapili, Staff Attorney, Hawaii State Supreme Court, HI
- Amy Pepke, Attorney, Butler Snow LLP, TN
- Andrew Perlman, Dean and Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School, MA
- Jennifer Smith, Professor of Law, Florida A&M University College of Law, FL
- Andrea Spillars, Executive Director, Missouri Board of Law Examiners, MO
We were thrilled with the number of responses we received to our open invitation to apply for the committee, and we thank everyone who took the time to apply. We received 236 submissions from qualified individuals with a diverse range of expertise and backgrounds, including 169 legal educators with various academic roles and 67 practitioners from a variety of practice settings. We asked optional demographic questions for applicants who wished to self-identify as a member of a community or to describe their background, and we used that data to ensure diversity and inclusion in the committee’s membership. The demographic data showed that 180 of the 236 applicants were the first in their family to go to law school and 52 were the first in their family to attend college; 132 were female and 97 were male; 20 were people whose first language was not English; 165 were White, 24 were Black, 11 were Latinx or Hispanic, 5 were Asian, and the rest either reported more than one race/ethnicity or did not answer the question; and 15 identified as a person with a disability.
The members of this diverse cross-disciplinary and cross-functional committee will work together through this fall to develop the draft test content specifications for the next generation of the bar exam based on the Testing Task Force’s recommendations. Many of the legal educators on the committee have extensive practice experience in addition to their doctrinal and teaching experience, which we believe brings an important perspective, as the focus for determining content will be on what knowledge and skills entry-level lawyers need to practice competently.
Members will be tasked with delineating the scope of coverage of the FC&P and the Foundational Skills designated for inclusion on the new exam for purposes of producing the test “blueprint” or content specifications, which will be used to write appropriate test items and to inform applicants, law schools, and jurisdictions of the coverage on the exam. The committee is scheduled to meet four times, starting in August 2021, and will complete its work before the end of this year. The draft content specifications will be published on this website for public comment before they are finalized.
